LECTOR BENEVOLE! FOR SO THEY USED TO CALL YOU, YEARS AGO, I CAN'T PRETEND TO MAKE YOU READ THE PAGES THAT TO THIS SUCCEED; NOR COULD I IF I WOULD EXCUSE THE WAYWARD PROMPTINGS OF THE MUSE AT WHOSE COMMAND I WROTE THEM DOWN.

I HAVE NO HOPE TO "PLEASE THE TOWN." I DID BUT THINK SOME FRIENDLY SOUL (NOT ILL ADVISED, UPON THE WHOLE!) MIGHT LIKE THEM; AND "TO INTERPOSE A LITTLE EASE," BETWEEN THE PROSE, SLIPPED IN THE SCRAPS OF VERSE, THAT THUS THINGS MIGHT BE LESS MONOTONOUS.

THEN, LECTOR, BE BENEVOLUS!

[ The Author desires to express his thanks to Lord Northcliffe, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co., Mr. William Heinemann, and Messrs. Virtue and Co., for kind permission to reprint those pieces in this volume concerning which no specific arrangements were made on their first appearance in type. ]

CONTENTS

Prologue On Some Books And Their Associations An Epistle To An Editor Bramston's "Man Of Taste" The Passionate Printer To His Love M. Rouquet On The Arts The Friend Of Humanity And The Rhymer The Parent's Assistant A Pleasant Invective Against Printing Two Modern Book Illustrators I. Kate Greenaway A Song Of The Greenaway Child Two Modern Book Illustrators Ii. Mr. Hugh Thomson Horatian Ode On The Tercentenary Of "Don Quixote" The Books Of Samuel Rogers Pepys' "Diary" A French Critic On Bath A Welcome From The "Johnson Club" Thackeray's "Esmond" A Miltonic Exercise Fresh Facts About Fielding The Happy Printer Cross Readings And Caleb Whitefoord The Last Proof General Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE OTTER HUNT IN THE "COMPLEAT ANGLER." From an unpublished pen drawing by Mr. Hugh Thomson Frontispiece

GROUP OF CHILDREN. From the original pen drawing by Kate Greenaway for The Library, 1881

PENCIL SKETCHES, by the same (No. 1)

PENCIL SKETCH, by the same (No. 2)

PENCIL SKETCHES, by the same (No. 3)

PENCIL SKETCH, by the same (No. 4)

THE BROWN BOOK PLATE. From the original design by Mr. Hugh Thomson in the possession of Mr. Ernest Brown

SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY AT THE ASSIZES. From a first rough pencil sketch, by the same, for Days with Sir Roger de Coverley, 1886

PEN SKETCHES, by the same, on the Half Title of the Ballad of Beau Brocade, 1892. From the originals in the possession of Mr. A. T.A. Dobson

PEN SKETCH (TRIPLET), by the same, on a Flyleaf of Peg Woffington, 1899

EVELINA AND THE BRANGHTONS, by the same. From the Cranford Evelina, 1903

LADY CASTLEWOOD AND HER SON, by the same. From the Cranford Esmond , 1905

MERCERY LANE, CANTERBURY, by the same. From the original pencil drawing for Highways and Byways in Kent , 1907

The originals of the illustrations preceded by an asterisk are in the possession of the Author.

ON SOME BOOKS AND THEIR ASSOCIATIONS

New books can have few associations. They may reach us on the best deckle edged Whatman paper, in the newest types of famous presses, with backs of embossed vellum, with tasteful tasselled strings, and yet be no more to us than the constrained and uneasy acquaintances of yesterday. Friends they may become to morrow, the day after, perhaps "hunc in annum et plures" But for the time being they have neither part nor lot in our past of retrospect and suggestion. Of what we were, of what we like or liked, they know nothing; and we if that be possible know even less of them. Whether familiarity will breed contempt, or whether they will come home to our business and bosom, these are things that lie on the lap of the Fates... Continue reading book >>